


The Ends of Mars

by Aedyn



Category: The Martian (2015)
Genre: Drama & Romance, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Hurt/Comfort, Sex, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-07 03:07:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13425456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aedyn/pseuds/Aedyn
Summary: Johanssen gets struck by debris while trying to evacuate Mars, and Beck refuses to leave her behind.  The race is then on to rescue the two stranded astronauts before time runs out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just another idea that came to me, because the world (or Mars) can never have enough Johanssen/Beck. 
> 
> Let me know what you think! If you enjoyed it, kudos are always appreciated!
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 9/13/18: Been crazy busy with work and fighting writer’s block but still working on the next chapter. I work on a lot of stories at once and go back and forth between them, so sometimes I'll get a kick on one story and knock out several chapters at once and ignore the others a bit. Rest assured though I am working on all of my posted stories!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! Kudos, comments, etc. always welcome!

**_Sol 18_ **

The storm was worse than any of them, even NASA, had expected or could have predicted.  Commander Lewis had ordered them to abort.  After rushing to gather what they could and shut things down, it was time to go.  There wasn’t even time to gather their personal belongings.  They all gave a sad farewell to the hab that they had called home for the past several weeks, sad that their time was over already, but orders were orders and none of them could deny the power of the storm that was already raging just outside the hab.

“Alright guys, everyone stay close,” Lewis said as they prepared to leave. 

The doors opened, and they were all taken aback by the fierceness of the winds.  Surely, this was what it must feel like to be in the middle of a tornado.  The sky was completely darkened, and dust whipped around them so ferociously that visibility was reduced to only a couple of feet in front of them.

“Visibility is almost zero.  If you get separated, try to hone in on my signal,” Lewis ordered and then stepped out of the door and into the maelstrom of the Martian storm.

Johanssen came out last and with Beck’s help worked at pulling the door shut.  Once the locks clicked into place, Beck gave her a thumbs up and they turned to join the others.  In single file they began a slow, agonizing march towards the MAV.    

“Commander, you guys need to get up here quick.  We’re getting some strong gusts,” Martinez said over the radio.

“Roger that, Martinez.  We’re on our way,” Lewis replied. 

They struggled through the blinding dirt, keeping their eyes on the flashing lights of the MAV. 

“Look out!  Debris!” Lewis shouted as a dish from the communications array snapped loose and came flying towards them.

They scrambled to get out of the path of the dish.  Vogel leaped forward, grabbing Lewis and throwing her to the ground with him, while Beck dropped to his stomach and Watney dove to the side.  A scream pierced their earpieces as the dish slammed into Johanssen and sent her flying back into the impenetrable blackness of the storm.

“Johanssen’s hit!”  Beck shouted, quickly scrambling to his feet.  “Johanssen, can you read me?  Beth?”

 “Come in, Johanssen!” Lewis shouted as he Vogel helped her up.

“Beck, how long can she survive if her suit is breached?”  Vogel asked.

“Less than a minute,” he replied.  "We have to find her now."  Not waiting for a response, Beck began to head in the direction he believed she had been thrown.

"Hold up, Beck," Lewis ordered, but he continued on. 

“Where is she?” Watney asked.  “Which way?”

“Commander, we are running out of time,” Martinez said.  “We are close to tipping point." 

“All of you back to the ship.  I’m going to keep looking,” Lewis said.

Vogel and Watney looked at each other uncertainly.  

“That’s an order, gentlemen,” she snapped.

Vogel and Watney nodded and turned to head toward the MAV.

“On the MAV, Beck.  Now,” she said.

“Can’t do that, Commander,” he replied simply.  “Let’s just get to it and start looking.”

“Damn you, Beck, alright,” she replied.  

“Commander, Johanssen’s bio-monitor has gone offline,” Martinez informed her.

“Noted,” she replied and joined Beck in the search, but within thirty seconds they were out of sight of each other.

“Commander, we have to go now or not at all,” Martinez informed her.  “If the MAV tips over we’ll never be able to get it upright, and we’ll be stranded here.”

"If it tips, then you launch!"  

"We're not going without you two," Martinez scoffed.

"That's an order, Martinez."

"You got anything, Beck?"  Lewis asked after another minute of searching.  There was no response.

“Commander, Johanssen is dead.  You and Beck need to get back here now,” Watney said as he and Vogel strapped themselves into their seats aboard the MAV.

“Beck, we have to go,” Lewis said.  “Back to the MAV.”  There was still no response. 

“Beck!” Watney shouted again, then his voice softened.  “She’s gone, man.  You have to leave her.”

“Beck?  Can you hear me?” Lewis asked desperation in her voice.  Only garbled static came back through her earpiece.  “Martinez, do you have anything on Beck?”

Martinez glanced at the screens, looking for any scrap of a signal he could find.  “No communication, and his bio-monitor just went offline.  He’s gone, Commander.  I got nothing.  He could be dead, or it could be storm interference.  There's no way to know.”

Lewis’ head pounded with indecision.  How could she leave two people behind?  But how could she endanger the lives of three others?

“Beck?!” Watney shouted.  “Can you read us?”

“We either need to get off the MAV or launch, Commander,” Martinez said with a tone of finality.

Lewis took one last look around her, seeing only the blackness of the storm and the blinking lights of the MAV.  Her heart fell.  She had to admit defeat to save the lives of her crew.  “I’m on my way.  Be ready to launch.”

“Roger that, Commander.”

The storm refused to abate, making each step towards the MAV a struggle.  While she made the trek, the others on the MAV continued to call out to Beck, hoping to catch some sort of signal, though having no idea what they could do if they did get one.

Lewis reached the MAV and began up the ladder.  Each step up the rungs was heavier than the last.  Each step took her further away from two of her crew – the people she was here to lead and protect, and she had failed them.  She pushed herself through it; she could not fail the rest of the crew.  Not now.

Once strapped into her seat, Martinez began the launch sequence.

“Ready for launch, Commander.”

Lewis just stared at the console in front of her.

“Commander, I need verbal authorization.”

“Launch,” she replied.

With a blaze of fire that lit up the swirling storm clouds, the MAV lifted off.  As it vanished into the sky, the storm filled back into the void and total darkness returned.

*****

“Johanssen!” Beck shouted as he struggled through the storm.  He could barely see anything.  A bright flash of light illuminated the area around him for just a moment, and he turned to see the MAV engines firing up.  He knew, he was stuck here now, but he couldn’t worry about that at that moment.  The light lasted just long enough for him to make out Johanssen’s prone shape just ahead.

His muscles burned as he pushed to get to her as quickly as he could.  “Johanssen!”  He shouted as he knelt down beside her.  He gave her a quick look over and found a narrow metal rod had pierced her side.  He lifted her in his arms.  Relief flooded him when a staticky, but clearly pained groan came through his earpiece.  “I got ya.  I got ya, Beth.”

With a struggle he was able to stand and began towards the hab, hoping that he’d kept the general direction straight in his head through all the wind and dust whipping about.  After several grueling minutes, he glimpsed the hab ahead.  “Yeah, this is gonna be ok,” he said, as much to himself as to her.  “We’re going to be ok.”        

As soon as he made it inside the hab, he collapsed to his knees and let Johanssen slip to the floor.  Sweat was streaming down his face, and his entire body was on fire.  Carrying her through the storm had been like to trying to run in water.  Only the rush of adrenaline had allowed him to push through.  He forced himself up and slammed the door shut, grateful that the howling of the wind was at least slightly diminished.  He then dragged Johanssen to the lab.  Quickly, he removed his helmet and his gloves and managed to get her up on a table. 


	2. Chapter 2

_**Sol 18** _

“Alright,” Beck said to himself and took a deep breath.  He’d removed his space suit to free up his movement and now began to work on removing Johanssen’s as quickly but gently as he could.  He had to get access to that wound.  “Don’t you dare die on me, Johanssen, and leave me stranded alone here.”

 Once he’d removed the top half of her suit, he grabbed a pair of scissors and began cutting off her shirt. 

“Sorry about this,” he said as he cut the fabric away.  With her shirt removed, he could finally examine the wound.  Rolling a standing light over the table, he turned it up and focused the light on the wound.  He’d already pulled the small rod free, having no other way to get her suit off if he’d left it in, but with it removed she had been bleeding freely and her stomach was caked with blood.

He grabbed a few towels from the cart of supplies he’d placed nearby and began wiping away the blood.  Now that he had a good look, he breathed a sigh of relief, it was not nearly as bad as he feared.  He gave her a small amount of morphine to go ahead and abate the pain in case she woke up.  Within a few minutes he had it sealed up with a nice row of stitches and covered with a bandage.  He would need to keep an eye on it, but it shouldn’t cause her any serious issues.

With the emergency dealt with, he went in search of clothes and came back with a pair of her sweatpants and a t-shirt.  He removed the rest of her suit, cleaned up the blood and got her switched over into more comfortable clothes.  Lifting her back up in his arms, he carried her to the back of the hab and placed her in her bunk, pulling the blankets up around her.        

Beck pulled a chair up beside the bed and collapsed into it.  He was beyond exhausted; he didn’t even bother to go wash her blood off his hands. 

“What a day we’ve had, Johanssen,” he said and then let out a big yawn.    

Her eyes fluttered open.  “Beck…”

He leaned forward in the chair.  “Yeah, Johanssen, I’m here.”

“Where…,” she couldn’t get the thought out.  She looked at him – she saw that his hands and shirt were still stained with blood – her blood she guessed.  She had a vague memory of him calling out her name.  “You saved me,” she whispered and smiled.  Her eyes closed again, and she was asleep as quickly as she had woken up.   

With her stable and resting, he finally felt ok to slip into the other room, get washed up, and change into fresh clothes.  He immediately felt five times better.  Now, he could start thinking.  He looked at himself in the mirror – his face was pale, his eyes dull – he couldn’t remember the last time he was so tired, and he realized he could scarcely think about the next hour much less the next day.

“Alright, Beck.  What the hell are you going to do?” he asked his reflection.  He chuckled to himself at the absurdity of their situation.  It was dire – there was no question of that.  But still, if he was going to be stranded anywhere and with someone, getting stranded with the girl of his dreams on another planet certainly wasn’t the worst outcome.  Though he would give anything for her not to be stranded here. 

Well, the good news was the storm was beginning to abate and they were in no immediate danger.  There was plenty of food – for now.  They wouldn’t starve today, or next month, or even this year.  This meant they had time to think things through.  He didn’t have to solve all of their future problems right this second, and he would need her help. 

“But she thinks we’re on the Hermes,” he groaned, and looked to his reflection, hoping he was tired enough that it might speak back to him with a grand solution.  Unfortunately, no sage advice was forthcoming from the mirror.  How could he tell her they’d been, understandably to be sure, left behind?  NASA had assuredly written them off as dead.  “I guess that’s future Beck’s problem.” 

*****

Before Johanssen even opened her eyes, she was aware of the pain.  As the haze in her mind began to clear somewhat, the pain was the first thing to take focus – not intense, but dull and persistent.  The next thing she noticed was the warmth of the blankets she was wrapped in.  When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by near darkness.  The lights in the room were off, but light from an adjoining room spilled in through the doorway, casting shadows, and giving shape to objects in the darkness.  She wondered where the hell she was.  What had happened?  Then she remembered the debris.  Something had hit her, but apparently, they must have rescued her.  She turned her head to the side and was surprised and relieved to see Beck, asleep in a chair.  Even asleep he looked exhausted.  Had she spoken to him earlier?  It was all a fog.

She tried to adjust the blankets quietly to avoid waking him, but he opened his eyes.  Once he saw she was awake, he quickly hopped from the chair and knelt down next to the bed, ready to go for whatever she needed.  “Hey, there.”

“Hi,” she replied and grimaced as a stab of pain hit her side.  Once it subsided she let out a deep breath and looked at him with a brave smile. 

“Do you need more pain meds?” he asked.  “I gave you a good dose.”

She shook her head.  “No, it’s ok.  What happened?”

“Uncharacteristically bad luck for you.  You were hit by the comm dish in the storm, but you’re going to be ok,” he assured her. 

“We all got back to the Hermes ok?” she asked, her concern for the others evident in her voice.

Beck’s face fell and he stared nervously down at his hands for a moment before he looked at her again.

“What is it, Beck?  Who else was hurt?” she mumbled, her voice barely above a whisper. 

He shook his head.  “No one, Johanssen.  Just you.  They’re all ok.  Why don’t we talk after you’ve had more sleep?”

She frowned at him.  “You look so tired.  I’ll sleep, but only if you do, too,” she said.

“I will,” he replied.

She sighed and closed her eyes.  “I am tired.  So tired, and this bed is so comfy.”  She opened her eyes again, though it was a struggle to do so and glanced at the chair and him.  She pulled back the blanket covering the area of the bunk between her and the wall and patted the mattress with her hand.

Beck regarded her questioningly.  “Is something wrong with the mattress?   I can move you.”

“No,” she said and then yawned and closed her eyes again.  She patted the mattress again and simply said, “You.  Here.”

He considered it for a moment.  She patted the mattress a third time.  “Get a move on, Beck.”

Carefully, he climbed into the bunk and across her, trying not to jostle her too much  He slid beneath the blankets and rolled onto his side to face her.

“Just don’t tell Lewis,” she mumbled and then let out a slight giggle which made Beck smile uncontrollably.

He reached out, uncertainly, and gently stroked her hair.  She grinned just slightly, and he could sense her relax some.  “Get some sleep now.  I’ll be here.”

She nodded, unable to keep her eyes open any longer.  “Sleep.  Yeah, I like sleep, Mr. Muggles.”

Beck’s face turned to one of amusement and surprise, but he just continued to stroke her hair as she nodded off again. 

*****

“Beck?” she said, a slight tremor in her voice.  “Beck?” 

 Beck, always a light sleeper, was instantly awake.   He opened his eyes and looked at her.  She had rolled over on her side, the uninjured one fortunately, and was staring at him. 

 “We’re not on the Hermes are we?”

 He had no idea how long he’d been asleep, but he felt much better than he had earlier, and he could see the Johanssen’s eyes seemed clearer now – the haze of pain and medicine was wearing off.  “No, but everyone is ok.  Please sleep more.  You need it.  We’ll talk again when you wake up.”

“Hey,” she said and slid her hand towards him beneath the blanket until she found his hand.  She squeezed it tightly.  “Talk to me.”

“Ok,” he said with an uneasy smile of surrender.  “So, you were hit by debris and it sent you flying.  Your bio-monitor went offline.”

“You all thought I was dead?” she asked.

He shook his head.  “I didn’t or didn’t want to.  But the storm was getting worse, and the MAV was about to tip.  Lewis ordered us to evac while she kept looking. Martinez kept warning us that we were about to lose the MAV. Vogel and Watney made it to the MAV but Lewis and I got separated.”

“You said she ordered you back to the MAV.”

 He grimaced.  “Um, yeah, she did. But I wanted to keep looking.”

 She arched an inquisitive eyebrow. “You disobeyed her orders?”

He shrugged. “Then my bio-monitor started to malfunction, and I knew they couldn’t wait on me, probably thought I was dead.  I tried to send them a message to go on without us, but I don’t think they were receiving me.  Then the MAV engines fired, and the light was enough that I could see you on the ground.  I was able to get you back to the hab.  You were hurt, but you’re all fixed up now.”

Her brow furrowed as she mulled over the timeline of events.  “They left us on Mars,” she said, not accusingly, simply matter-of-fact.

“They had to leave us behind. They didn’t have a choice. If they’d stayed any longer we’d have all been trapped. They had every reason to think we were dead.”

“Of course,” she said.  “I don’t blame them.  They didn’t have a choice, but you did. Why didn’t you leave?”

“I couldn’t.”

“They waited for you as long as they could. You endangered them to look for someone who was probably dead.”

“To look for you, and you aren’t dead.”

“But we will be right? Stranded on Mars. You can’t fix that. No one can fix that. You’re going to die here... because of me,” she said. 

He could see the tears forming in her eyes.

“I don’t believe that. I don’t think this is unfixable. But I can’t do it alone. I need you.  We need each other.”

“Why did you stay for me?” she said, unintentionally in a whisper.

“I didn’t do anything special.  You were hurt.  Any one of the others would’ve done the same thing,” he said dismissively.

Her eyes narrowed.  “But the others didn’t stay for me.  You _did_.” 

Beck swallowed hard.  “I don’t want to talk about that right now. It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter.  It matters why you risked your life for me, when by all rights I should’ve been left for dead.  There was no reason for you risk your life like that,” she said, some anger in her voice.  Why couldn’t he just talk to her?  But then her face softened, as she realized she had no idea what he’d been through that day.  “But, you saved my life, so I’ll leave it for now.  So, what do we do?”

“You rest. I’ll start taking a supply inventory. We’re safe for now. We have time to sit down and think this through.”

“You really think we can get through this?”

He nodded and squeezed her hand.  “Yeah, I do.  If we rely on each other.  I just need you to trust me, and I’ll trust you.”

“That’s the easiest thing you could ask of me,” she replied.  “This isn’t going to be easy though.”

“No, it won’t be,” he agreed.  “On another, lighter topic, can I ask you something?”

“Right now, I am literally the only person you can ask something,” she replied with a mischievous gleam in her eye.  “So, sure.”

“Who’s ‘Mr. Muggles?’” he asked.

Her eyes narrowed, and she couldn’t help but chuckle.  “Where did you hear that?”

“You called me that,” he replied. 

She blushed.  “He’s my teddy bear.”

“Is?” 

“He’s in my room on the Hermes,” she said with no small embarrassment.  “If I’d known we were going to be stuck here, I’d have brought him down with me.  My little sister gave him to me just before we left.”

Beck laughed.  “Well, I’m making it my mission to reunite you.”

“With Mr. Muggles or my sister?” she asked with affected seriousness.

“Um… both?” he replied.

She laughed and released his hand, so she could wipe the tears from her eyes and then grinned at him.  “I changed my mind.  Tell me.”

His brow furrowed.  “What about?”

“Why you stayed.  Tell me,” she said and locked her brown eyes with his.  “I want to know.”

“Any of the crew would give their lives to save you.  I didn’t do anything special.”

“If they knew I was alive, I know they would, but you all thought I was dead.  If it had been someone else lost in that storm… would you have stayed?”

He wasn’t prepared for that and his face showed it.  “I… um… that’s impossible to answer.”

“No,” she replied, “that is your answer.  You stayed for me.  Why?”

“I don’t have an answer for you, Beth,” he replied.  “I’m sorry.” 

Her smile vanished.  Without a word she rolled onto her back and closed her eyes.

He silently cursed himself.  He’d hurt her, but he was afraid of hurting her far worse if he told her the truth.  She wasn’t just his colleague and friend; she was his patient.  How could he complicate that further?  Did she really want to know?  If it made things awkward, could they ignore it enough to keep themselves alive for years?  Yet, here they were stranded alone on another planet – did any of the normal rules apply anymore?

“I… um… I’m in love with you, Beth.  So, I stayed,” he said, his voice quiet but earnest.  “I stayed.”

Her eyes popped open.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a scientist, engineer, etc. As the story starts to get into some of the planning for the rescue, I'm just using my commonsense and that things that seem plausible or realistic to me. If I do something that you know is impossible, feel free to let me know (doesn't mean I'll change it, but I might!). =)

_**Sol 18** _

Johanssen lay there silently for a moment, staring at the ceiling of her bunk.  She’d taped a bunch of pictures up there – her little sister, her parents, the beach.  She couldn’t really make out the pictures in the darkness, but she had every detail memorized.  And there was one of her and Beck when they were in training – fresh-faced young idiots too brave to realize the insanity they’d signed up for – not that she would trade a minute of it.  He had one of those trademark roguish grins of his, which she could picture perfectly.  She didn’t know why, but it never really crossed her mind that he would be interested in her.  He had certainly never indicated any interest in her, but now here he was, stranded on Mars – for her, and it made her heart race.

“Oh, really, Beck?”  She said after a few more moments of awkward silence.  Then she gritted her teeth and rolled onto her side to face him with a pained expression.  “You couldn’t have told me that before I rolled over?  This isn’t as easy as I make it look.”

He just smiled uneasily.  He had no idea where this was going to go and at that moment, that was more terrifying than being stranded on Mars.  “Sorry, but, to be fair, you did drag it out of me.”

“Tell me again,” she said, staring into his eyes.  She could see, and found it adorable, that he was slightly terrified.

He studied her face carefully, trying to discern what she was thinking in the near-darkness, but her poker face was far better than his.  He was trying to tell if she was forcing herself not to smile, because it certainly seemed that way – or maybe that was just him hoping.  “What?”

“I want to see your face when you say it,” she replied.

“You… uh… again?  Really?” he stammered. 

She nodded slowly, a smile spreading across her face.  “Go on.” 

He tried to psych himself up.  Surely, she wasn’t asking him to repeat it, just so she could reject him.  “I love you,” he whispered.  “I’ve loved you… for a long time.”

“Why didn’t you want to tell me that?” she asked curiously.

“How could I?  Before, it was the mission.  If you didn’t feel the same… or didn’t want to hear it.”

“Why didn’t you want to tell me just now?”

“I don’t want you to feel like you owe me anything, just because I stayed behind for you.  I made my choice, it’s not up to you to validate it.  However you feel towards me doesn’t matter.  I did what I had to do.”

“You think this is about me?  You’re trying to protect me?”

He gave a slight nod.  “Yeah, I suppose I am.  Doing a piss poor job of it though.” 

“I know exactly how I feel.  I don’t doubt it,” she said.  She reached over and grabbed his hand again.  “I’ve never questioned it.  You don’t need to worry about me.  Well, not about that anyway.”  Her eyes darted away nervously for a moment.  “But…”

“But you doubt me?”

She let out a deep sigh.  “No, I just need you to be sure.  I can’t be the girl you fell for because there were no other options available.  That’s now what I want to be to you.  I can’t.”

“Earth.”

“Earth?” she asked uncertainly.

He nodded.  “I’ve been head over heels for you since we started training together.  I had plenty of other options on Earth.  I mean come on – astronaut doctor.  But I didn’t pursue other options.”

“You didn’t pursue me either.”

“Not fair to you or me – not with the mission coming up.  If you rejected me or it didn’t work out, whole mission becomes awkward and a strain on us both and maybe the rest of the crew.  I had to play the long game.”

“Long game?”

“I was going to tell you… if I worked up the courage, when we got back to Earth,” he replied. 

“You were willing to wait that long for me?” she asked, her voice went very quiet.

“Some things are worth waiting for, right?”

“Well, Earth is presently out of our reach.  So, what about now?” she asked.

“Now?”

“Are you ready to pursue me?  Because, I’ll make this easier for you.  I’m not running.”  She directed her eyes in the direction of her wounded side.  “Couldn’t run if I wanted to.” 

“Yeah, I’d like it if you didn’t mess up my excellent stitch work.”

“Catching me should be pretty easy then.” 

He laughed.  “Classic Johanssen.”

“And I don’t want to run,” she said.  “So, why don’t you just kiss me already?”

Beck smiled, try as he might to force his mouth not to.  He decided he was already all in, and there was no going back now, so might as well put it all on the table.  He slid across the bed, closing the already small distance between them, until his face was just inches from hers.  “Since the day I met you, I’ve thought you were brilliant and simply amazing.  I love you, Beth Johanssen.  And I don’t care if the whole planet knows it.”

She couldn’t keep the excitement that had been building in her off her face any longer, but she rolled her eyes at the last comment.  “That was a bit cheesy.”

He shrugged.  “Well, that’s part of my charm.”

She touched her hand to his face.  “Yeah, it is.”  She arched a deliberate eyebrow and moved closer to him, so that the tips of their noses almost touched.  “I am _so_ angry at you for staying behind but also relieved.  It’s an odd state to be in.”

He leaned the couple of inches to press his lips to hers, when suddenly her hand was on his chest, pushing him back.  His heart fell.

“Damn it,” she said.  “Weather antennas!”

Confusion clouded his face.

“Sorry,” she said apologetically.  “I do want to kiss you.  We’re definitely coming back to that, but I just had a thought.  We can’t let the Hermes know we’re alive because…”

“You broke the com array when you let the dish hit you,” he deadpanned.

She smirked.  “Right, right.  But the weather antennas work.”

It was evident to her by his face he still didn’t understand.

“There are some low-strength antennas on the hab that constantly transmit basic data to the Hermes.  Nothing major, just simple things like air pressure and temperature.”

“So, can we send a message?”

She shook her head.  “Not video, or even audio, too much data and they’re not designed for that.  But, if I could hack the system.”  She chuckled.  “‘Could.’  Sorry, when I do hack the system, I could alter the data being sent.  Instead of it sending the temperature, I could have it transmit any numbers we want.”

“How does that help us?  Are you thinking if we put in a ridiculous number for the temperature they’ll think it’s us?  If they’re even looking at the data feed still, they may just think it’s damaged.”

“No, we don’t send just any numbers.  We send ‘five zero five.’  We send it a lot,” she replied.

“Five zero five?”

She nodded excitedly, her eyes beaming.  “Think about it in your head.  Visualize the numbers, not the words.” 

Beck’s eyes narrowed as he focused on the numbers in his mind.  “505… SOS,” he said.  “That’s brilliant.”

“You’re surprised that I’m brilliant?  You just used that word to describe me, yet you seem surprised,” she said with a pout.

“I… um…”

“Oh, Beck,” she said sympathetically and laughed out loud.  “You’re too easy to tease.  But it’s only brilliant if they see it and understand it.  I need my laptop!”

“Right!”

“Go, go, go,” she said and shooed him away. 

Beck hopped out of the bunk a bit too energetically, drawing a pained groan from Johannsen.

“Sorry,” he said.  “Ummm… laptop…”

“On the back table,” she said.  “Get a move on, Beck!” 

He ran and grabbed it and quickly brought it back to her.

“I’m going to have to sit up,” she said.  “Can you help me?”

He sat the laptop beside her, then put his arm beneath her and helped her sit up, leaning her back against the wall of the bunk as gently as he could.  As he was about to pull away, she grabbed the sleeve of his shirt.

“I’ll take that kiss now,” she said.  “For good luck.”

“Yes, m’am,” he replied and leaned in close.  His heart raced when his lips touched hers, and all he could think about it was soft they felt.  She gave him a wink when he pulled away. 

Johanssen began to type quickly on her laptop.  She chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to work through the coding. 

“How’s it coming?” He asked after ten minutes of her typing and mumbling to herself.

“Shh,” she replied firmly.  “I am in the Johanzone.”

“What zone?”

“The Johanzone,” she reiterated with complete seriousness.  

“Well, we can’t help who we love I guess,” he joked.  “No matter how big a nerd they may be.”

She glanced at him and winked.  “You got that right.”  She made a kissing sound with her lips and then resumed her focus on coding.  Then she stopped and looked at him.  “Hey, when’s your birthday?”

“August 2, 1999,” he replied.  “Why?”

She shushed him again and resumed typing.

After another ten minutes, her typing had slowed considerably, and she appeared to Beck to be winding down.

Sensing he was about to speak again, she held up her hand to dissuade him from that thought.  She typed some more then slammed her laptop shut with a victorious smile.  “Hey, Beck, do you happen to know who the most badass hacker on Mars is?”

“Errr, I want to guess Martinez… but I don’t think he’s here?”

She smirked and rolled her eyes.  “I’m taking that kiss back, pal.”

“Sure thing,” he said.  He leaned down and kissed her again, deeply.  “Did I give it back right?  I can try again.”

“Yeah, you should definitely try again.  You completely failed.” 

Beck sat on the edge of the bed, leaning on one hand, he placed the other hand on the back of her neck as he leaned into kiss her.  Her tongue darted into his mouth, eliciting a moan of pleasure from him.  Kissing her was even amazing than he’d fantasized about many times in their long journey.

“Damn,” she groaned when they stopped to take a breath.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she replied with a blush.

“What?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head.  “It’s slightly embarrassing to say.”

“Ummm… I told you that I was in love with you.  And without a reciprocation, which I’m not asking for, but I think that puts me at the top of the embarrassment scale.”

“I just really wish I wasn’t wounded right now.”

Beck regarded her curiously.

“Hacking… kind’ve turns me on and kissing you doesn’t help matters,” she said, coyly.

“Oh… ah,” Beck replied, now his turn to blush. 

“And…,” she let out a deep sigh.  “It would be nice if I could show you rather than just tell you, that I love you too.  How’s that for your ‘reciprocation’?”


	4. Chapter 4

**_Sol 19 - 29 Hours since Mars evac_ **

Lewis stared absently out the window.  The landscape of Mars slowly rolled by as the Hermes neared the end of its last orbit around the red planet.  It was so close, yet impossibly far away.  It had been just over a day since their emergency evac, and still she continually ran over the whole thing in her mind.  She had submitted her report to NASA and had received their reply.  They were to conduct some final tests, and complete preparations for the Hermes to return to Earth.  She had tried to argue with them that they should stay longer, just in case Beck and Johanssen had survived and tried to contact them.  NASA argued there was no evidence that either of them was alive and had overruled her.    

“Commander?”  Vogel said, quietly, trying to minimize his disturbance of her solitude as he floated onto the bridge.

“What can I do for you, Vogel?” She asked as she turned towards him with a forced smile.  They were all in pretty bad spirits, but as their commander she had to at least try to put on a brave face for their benefit.

He really hated to bother her and questioned to himself whether he should have even brought this to her.  “Yeah, I was just wrapping up some of the data collection and shutting down some of the equipment, and I found something odd.  The weather antenna is getting some weird data.”

“Weird?” She asked, trying to sound interested.

“Yeah, so I checked the logs.  Normally, the antenna gets a data ping from the planet every hour with the current temperature.  It is now pinging every five minutes with the number ‘505.’  Which, of course, is impossible temperature wise.  I ran a diagnostic and can’t find any issues on our end.  It must be a problem with the antenna on the hab.  I assumed you would want to know about any abnormalities, in case it needed to be included in your next report.  I know NASA is going to want every detail.”

She nodded and rubbed her temples.  “Yeah, you’re right.  They will want every last detail.  We’ll be in the history books, Vogel.  The commander that left her people behind on Mars.”

Sadness clouded his face.  “Commander…,” Vogel said, preparing to get her out of that line of thought.

“No, I know, I know,” she interrupted.  “It’s ok, Vogel.  I shouldn’t have said that; that was out of line.  I apologize.”

“You don’t owe me any apologies, Commander.”

“‘505’ huh?” she said, returning to the topic at hand.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Every single time?”

He nodded.  “It’s very odd.  If it were simple antenna damage, I would imagine the numbers would be more random, but there is a clear repeating pattern.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call repeating 505s a clear pattern.  It could be a problem in the coding that’s just causing the same number to repeat.”

“Yes, but I haven’t mentioned yet, there are two other numbers that appear together at random intervals.”

“Which is of course possible with an error…”

“But unlikely,” Vogel finished for her.  “The two other numbers don’t seem to have any significance either.  They don’t match any error codes.”

“505 and what were the other numbers?”

“Umm, I don’t recall exactly, I believe one of them was 082299.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she pursed her lips.  Then she looked at Vogel.  “Show me the data report.”

Vogel floated over to the chair beside her and after buckling himself in, began typing, bringing up the report on one of the monitors in front of them.

Holding the edge of the monitor, Lewis leaned in, looking over the numbers.

Vogel pointed to the screen.  “There the two other repeating numbers, and you’ll see they always repeat together.  505, 082299, 050906, then back to a string of 505s again.”

The tears formed in her eyes first, and as they slid down her cheeks she began to laugh.

Vogel looked at her with no small amount of concern.  “Commander?”

She pointed to the screen.  “505 – let your eyes go out of focus and what does that look like?”

“SO….S?”

“And,” she said, pointing to the other two repeating numbers.  “Do you have any idea how much time I spent reading and rereading all of your personnel files?”

“By the tone of your question, I’m guessing far too much,” he replied.

She nodded.  “Exactly, and that is how I know that those two numbers happen to be the birthdays of one flight surgeon Beck and one sysop Johanssen.”

Vogel’s eyes grew wide, and he grinned, uncertain if he should.  “They’re alive?”

She leaned over and grabbed his hands and looked into his face, locking her eyes with his.  “They’re fucking alive!  And you may have just saved them, Alex.”  She reached over and hit the button for the ship wide comm.  “Watney, Martinez, I need you to report to the common room immediately.”  She switched the comm off and looked back to Vogel.  “We need a goddamn plan.”

“Then a goddamn plan we will have,” Vogel said simply.

*****

“So, how do we get them back?” Lewis asked them after explaining the situation. 

The faces gathered around the conference table staring back at her were a mixture of excitement, shame, and concern.  This confirmed to them that they had left their colleagues – their friends – behind.  The fact that they had little choice didn’t do much at the moment to alleviate the feeling, but that was quickly replaced by the fear of wondering how the hell they would get them off that planet alive.

“Well,” Martinez began, “we can’t land on Mars again.  The MAV was a one-way trip.”

“Isn’t there another MAV already on Mars?” Watney asked.

Lewis nodded.  “Yeah, my first thought as well.”  She walked over to one of the monitors mounted on the wall, where she had already pulled up a surface map of Mars.  She pointed to a spot on the screen.  “Here at Schiaparelli Crater.  It’s there for the next Ares mission, but it’s too far.  I don’t know how they could make it.  It’s distance of around 3200 kilometers.”

Martinez scoffed and leaned back in his chair.  “A rover’s range isn’t anywhere remotely near that.  You’d have better luck trying to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat.  And the only way we could get back to the surface would be the escape pod, and then we’d be stuck there too.”

“There’s nothing we can do to mod the escape pod?” Watney asked.

Martinez had a look of disbelief.  “That’s a joke, right?”

Watney shook his head and shrugged.  “Umm…”

Martinez waved him off.  “No, no.  Its engines are designed to slow reentry.  They’re nowhere near powerful enough to escape Mars’ gravity.  Not to mention it wouldn’t have enough fuel.”

“But, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea,” Vogel interjected.

“How so?” Lewis asked.

“We have extra supplies on board already.  Now, we add to that the supplies that would’ve been used up by Beck and Johanssen.  Can’t we load up the escape pod with those supplies that could help them and launch it to the surface.  We help keep them alive until NASA can figure out a solution.”

“I like that,” she said.  She looked to Martinez.  “Can we ensure it lands close enough to the hab for them to reach it?”

Martinez considered it for a moment.  “Yeah, I think so.  We’ll need to run some of the numbers through NASA.” 

“But we can’t stay in orbit indefinitely, or we’ll run out of food,” Watney said.

“No,” Lewis began, “but we have enough supplies that we could stay for a while, if NASA can come up with a rescue plan that involves us.  If not, then we provide them with enough supplies until NASA can get a rescue launched, and we head home.”

“The next Ares mission isn’t for what… four years?” Watney asked and let out a whistle.  “That’s a long damn time.”

“And we don’t have that much food to give them,” Vogel cautioned.  “We could give them every scrap of food we have and it wouldn’t last four years.”

Watney’s face brightened and he jumped up from his seat.  “No, but maybe they can grow it!  If we can figure out a way to talk to them, I can help them maybe figure out how to grow something.”

“Is that possible?” Lewis asked.

“I’ll need to check our inventory, and I’ll need to see an inventory for what’s on the hab, but yeah it could be.”

“Too long.  Too many variables,” Vogel said then stood up and approached the screen.  He pointed to the location of the hab.  “Now, they’re here.  What if we landed the pod halfway between the hab and Schiaparelli?  If they could get enough supplies onboard the rover to make it halfway, then they could restock from the pod on the way.  Then use that MAV to rendezvous with the Hermes.” 

“As I said, the rover can’t go that far from the hab,” Martinez said with a shrug.  “But we can run it by NASA, see what they say.  If they scavenge the other rover for parts, I dunno maybe they could come up with something.”

Vogel shook his head and frowned.  “I just feel I must caution against any plan that leaves them waiting on Mars for four years.  If that is the only option, then so be it.  But, anything can happen in four years.  The hab is not designed to last that long.  If any major system stops functioning, and they can’t fix it, then they’re dead.”

“You have a proposal?” Lewis asked.

“Beyond what I’ve said already, unfortunately, no,” he said, deflated.  “Other than that we must impress upon NASA the importance of finding a way to get them back onto the Hermes.”

Martinez groaned.  “Look, Vogel, I don’t disagree.  Getting them back on the Hermes ASAP is, of course, the best option for them and us.  I just don’t know how that’s possible, but you know, I’m willing to try anything.” 

Lewis walked over to the window.  She stared down at the planet for a moment.  She turned back to face them and pointed to the window.  “That is too damn close, gentlemen.  Too close for us to give up on Beck and Johanssen without a nail-biting fight to save them.  Are we agreed?”

“Yes, m’am,” they each replied with full sincerity.

“Well, whatever we end up doing, how will we talk to them?” Watney asked.  “Is there something we could send down in the pod that would let them talk to us directly?”

”And putting something on the pod won’t help them if we drop the pod 1500km away from them.  We need to find a way to communicate with them now,” Vogel said  

Lewis mulled it over.  “Good point.  We need to talk to NASA.  We’re going to need their help on this one.”

“They’re not going to like us ejecting that pod,” Martinez warned her.

“If they want Beck and Johanssen back alive, then they won’t have a choice,” she said. 

“And if they say no?” he pressed.

“We do it anyway,” she replied.  “Is that a problem for anyone?”

“Hell no,” Martinez assured her with a broad smile.

“What he said,” Watney said, gesturing to Martinez.

 “Is there any way to at least signal to let them know we got their message?”  Vogel asked.  “It will be easier to rescue them, if they know we’re trying.”

“I’m working on that,” Lewis said.  She motioned to Watney.  “Get started on an inventory of our supplies.  Figure out how much we can fit on the pod and how much we can spare.  We’ll ration if we need to – we need to give them as much as we can in case they really are stuck there for four years.”

“On it,” Watney replied, then he cocked his head and gave Lewis a half-grin.  “And, if I might add a moment of levity… for all of our sakes…”

“Watney,” Lewis said threateningly, her eyes narrowed.

He held up his hands defensively.  “No, I’m just saying, if any two people were going to be stranded on Mars… I mean come on.  It’s about time those two addressed the elephant in the room.  Maybe some time alone will do them good.”

“My last bag of M&Ms says it’s already gone down,” Martinez piped in.

Watney slapped his hand on his knee.  “I’ll take that.  I’ve got Skittles to put up.”

“Ohhh, Skittles,” Martinez said, his eyes glazing over.

 “I say another two days before they tear each other’s clothes off.  Vogel, Commander, you in on this?” 

Lewis looked at the two of them, regarding them with barely contained disgust, amusement, and a complete lack of surprise that they would suggest this.

Behind her back, Vogel held up one finger and silently mouthed, “One more day.” 

Watney laughed and gave a two-fingered salute to Vogel.

”You do realize that one or both of them may be seriously injured, right?” she asked.

”Oh, yeah there’s that,” Martinez said.

”We’ll, they do have the best doctor on Mars,” Watney said.  “Given today’s news, I’m choosing optimism.”

Dismissing them with a shake of her head, like a mother fed up with her misbehaving children, Lewis turned back to Vogel.  “Vogel, see what we can remove from the pod to make more room.  Martinez, you and I have a long-distance call to make.”

“Let’s go rescue some Martian lovebirds,” Watney said.

Lewis nodded to dismiss them and left the room.  She couldn’t help but smile and feel a surge of excitement.  They could do this.  Cursing herself for her lack of fortitude, she suddenly turned back and popped her head back into the common room.

The three of them looked at her curiously, expecting further orders. 

With a face that was all business she said, “Two cans of Dr. Pepper, and it’ll be tonight.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, I don't disappoint. So, I reworked this chapter to tone the sex way down, it seemed to fit the story better that way. If you disagree, let me know!

**_Sol 19_ **

“Good morning,” Beck said, when he heard Johanssen sit up in her bunk with a yawn.  He was sitting at a nearby desk, studying some maps of Mars while jotting down some notes.

“Mmmm, good morning,” she replied.  “What are you doing there?”

“Just fully realizing the gravity of our situation,” he said matter-of-factly, tossing his pen on the desk.  He turned to her, glad to see she was looking much better.      

She was equally relieved to see that finally appeared well-rested and back to himself.  Then she cocked her head to the side.  “Is it actually morning?”

He smiled and laughed.  “Well, no.  It’s more like 1830.  You slept… a lot.  You needed it.”

“Damn meds finally cleared out of my head,” she said and yawned again and stretched her arms out, lacing her fingers together and pressing her palms out.  “I feel so much better now, but I could definitely use a shower.”

“You bet,” he said.  “Let’s get a waterproof bandage on that wound.  It’ll give me a chance to make sure it still looks good.” 

She pressed a hand tenderly to her side, and then smiled in surprise.  “It doesn’t hurt as much as I expected.”

He nodded, unsurprised.  “No, fortunately the rod actually didn’t really go that deep, your suit absorbed a lot of the impact force.  It just bled a lot.”

“Well, fortunate for me that my new boyfriend is a fancy doctor,” she said with a playful arching of her eyebrows. 

He leaned forward in his chair and regarded her with a curious stare, which quickly changed into a roguish grin that made her skin tingle.  “Boyfriend huh?  You didn’t ask,” he chuckled. 

“Is that a problem?” she asked, only mildly serious. 

He stood up and walked over to the bunk and offered her his hand.  “Nope.  So, how about you let your boyfriend check you out.  You feel like stretching your legs?  We can walk over to my station so I can take a look.”

“Anyway, where else on this planet are you going to find anyone as amazing as me?  I mean you could try and hold out for someone better,” she said as she grasped his hand.

“And here I was, just about to forget we were stranded alone on a barren planet,” he said with a wink.  He helped her up, pulling her against his chest.  “But, no one anywhere is as amazing as you.” 

“Such a sap,” she joked and kissed the cleft of his chin. 

She smiled up at him as he brushed some strands of hair back from her face and leaned down to kiss her with restrained eagerness. 

“Have I told you this ‘morning’ that I love you?” she asked.  It was still new, and she still got a slight thrill out of saying it.

He laughed.  “Now, who’s being a sap?”    

They walked hand-in-hand the thirty feet over to his station and she laid down on the bed.  He lifted her shirt back and leaned in to take a look at the wound. 

“So, just how dire is our situation?” she asked.

“Well, there is another MAV on this planet, but it’s 3200km away,” he said grimly.  “That’s not good for us.  Even if we can figure out a way to get that far in a rover, it would take us nearly two months to get there.  That’s a lot of food and supplies that we’d have to take with us, and that rover is already cramped with two of us.”

“Well, damn,” she said.

“This looks really good,” he said, nodding with approval.  He reached over and grabbed a small waterproof bandage and began to apply it.  “Probably have a small scar.”

“There goes my perfect body,” she lamented. 

“It’s still perfect,” he assured her.

“How can you say that?  You haven’t seen it,” she replied.  

He shrugged.  “I’m your doctor, Jo.  I’ve seen quite a bit of it.  There aren’t many mysteries left.”

She smiled.  “Maybe,” she said then looked at him.  “But the mysteries that are left are pretty impressive.” 

Beck tried not to blush and nervously tried to focus on the bandage, even though he was actually done applying it, he continued to act as if he wasn’t done – anything to avoid looking her in the face.

Then her eyes narrowed and she laughed.  “Wait, did you just call me ‘Jo’?”

“Oh, sorry,” he said.  “I guess I did.  There all done.”

She sat up in the bed and threw her arms around his neck and pressed her forehead against his.  “You gave me a pet name!  That’s so adorable and so you.  I can call you C.B.”

“Oh, please don’t do that,” he said with a look of horror. 

She pouted her lips.  “Fine, how about Bex?”

“How about I go get that shower ready for you?” he said jerking his head in the direction of the shower.

She sighed and nodded.  “Sounds good, but don’t think I’m forgetting about this.  You know if Martinez heard you call me Jo he would never let you live it down.”

They headed to the rear of the hab where the shower was located.  He hit the pad to activate the shower control panel.  Like everything else about the hab, the shower had been over-designed and had a myriad of options.  He hit the scroll button to cycle through the selections until he came to the mister.  Rather than a strong stream of water, the shower could release a mist for the ceiling, which could be followed by a very quick rinse.  It was good when only a light cleaning was needed, or when water needed to be conserved.  The water for the shower was stored in its own closed system and after draining from the shower was routed back through filter and purification systems to be used again.  Beck was not ignorant of the fact that at some point they might have to break into that closed system for drinking water, if it came to it.  He hit the activation and a warm, light mist began to fall inside the shower.

Johanssen stepped up beside him and he turned to her and smiled.

“One misting shower, as requested,” he told her.

“And I cannot wait,” she replied clapping her hands together with excitement. 

Ten minutes later Johanssen reappeared in the main room, where Beck had resumed his inventory and was once again singing.

“Hey, there,” she said.

“Feeling bett…,” Beck began as he turned to face her.  Then he saw that she was standing there in nothing but a towel, with a seductive smile. 

“I’m feeling much better,” she said then feigned a hurt look.

“Are you ok?”

“Just my side.  Can you come take a look at it for me?”

“Sure,” he said.  “You want to get on the table.”

“No, I’ll go wait in Lewis’ bunk, it’s more comfortable.”  She turned and headed for the bunks.  Then she stopped and looking over her shoulder said simply, “Don’t keep me waiting.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beck and Johanssen carry things back to the bunk. Nothing but sex here!

_**Sol 19** _

When Beck reached Lewis’ bunk, he found Johanssen already in it, lounging casually on the soft blankets, the towel nowhere to be seen, but she was wearing his black NASA jacket.  Just his jacket.  He knew Johanssen had a mischievous side – but having sex in their commander’s bunk was a whole other level. 

“Hope you don’t mind.  I borrowed your jacket,” she said. 

“Aren’t you the rebel?” he asked, his voice heavy in his throat.  “I’m not sure that NASA would approve.  Breaking uniform code and sex in your commander’s bunk…” 

She frowned.  “Who said we were having sex?” 

Beck’s face went pale.  “Oh sorry... I just...”

She burst out laughing.  “Poor, Beck,” she said.  

“You are vicious,” he laughed.

She stuck out her tongue.  “It’s part of my fantasy,” she said and pouted her lips.

”Torturing me?” He asked with amusement.

She rolled her eyes.  “No!  Well, maybe a little.”

“Wearing my jacket?”

She nodded as she approached the bed.  “You don’t like it?” she asked, pouting her lips.

“It is kind of sexy,” he admitted.  “Actually, it’s ridiculously sexy.  Ummm… what’s the rest of your fantasy?”

“Patience,” she teased.

He climbed into the small bunk.  Leaning over he grabbed her by the waist and rolled her over on top of him.  She yelped and then laughed in surprise.  Cupping her cheek, he stroked her face.

”Oh hell, I forgot you’re hurt,” he said, concern clouding his face.  He couldn’t believe he was so careless.  Gently, he touched his hand to the bandage at her side.  There was no sign of blood. 

Placing her hand over his on her side, she leaned in and pressed her forehead to his.  “Shhh. I’m alright, Beck.  I’m alright.  Keep going.”

“You feeling all refreshed?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

 “What fantasy of yours can I make come true?” he asked as he planted light kisses on her neck.

“I don’t need the fantasies anymore.  I have you,” she replied very matter-of-fact.  “But… if you insist.”

He kissed her collarbone, eliciting a shiver from her.

Her skin turned hot when he suddenly pulled away the soft fabric of the jacket covering one of her breasts.  As he tasted her delicious skin, all he could think about was how beautiful she in the shower, the water on her skin.  When she felt the warmth of his mouth on her, his tongue teasing her nipple, she let out of a hiss of breath and enlaced her fingers in his hair.  One of his hands began to explore her, running along her side, up and down her thigh as he sucked on her breast.  She let out a heated moan and spread her legs slightly.

He leaned back up and kissed her again, her tongue darting playfully around his.  He cupped her check, then slowly, to build her anticipation, he began trailing his fingertips down her face, and then lightly across her breast.  He couldn’t wait to touch her, to feel her wetness on his fingers, but he wanted to make her wait for it.

He kissed her neck, gently biting at her skin as his fingertips made slow circles around her breast.  “What’s next in your fantasy?” he asked and kissed her shoulder.

“I want you to touch me,” she replied eagerly.

Beck smiled to himself; it was his turn to toy with her.  “Where, Beth?”

She inclined her head slightly to look at him.  “Are you teasing me, Beck?” 

He just looked at her with his roguish grin and shrugged.  Then he slid his hand from her breast, down her stomach, and between her thighs.  “Is that it, Beth?”

She licked her lips and nodded.  “Yeah,” she said simply and laid her head back down and closed her eyes.

Beck could feel the heat of her arousal against his palm as he cupped her mound.  He stared at her face as he gently pressed his fingertip against, just enough pressure to part her lips.  She bit her bottom lip.  He moved his finger further until he found her opening and pressed softly against it, and she bit harder into her lip.  Then he pushed inside her.

“Nnnngh,” she cried out, pleasure apparent in her face, unable to stop herself.

Beck continued to study her face.  He could see - she was happy, and she felt safe with him.  “I love you, Beth,” he said.

Johanssen opened her eyes and smiled at him.  Not just a smile – an air of surrender, not to him, but to all of the feelings for him she’d been hiding for so long – she could let them be free now.  Reaching a hand to his face, she pulled him in for a kiss.  As he kissed her deeply, he slid his finger deep inside her, and she playfully nipped the tip of his tongue.

Beck carefully worked his finger inside her as they kissed, enjoying in the feel of her silky slickness and the way his touch made her body react.

“On your back, Beck,” she said and then giggled at the unintended rhyme. 

He reluctantly removed his hand from her and rolled over onto his back.  Johanssen rolled over on top of him and straddled his stomach. 

She held up her forefinger and middle finger.  “This is what I’m used to,” she said with a mischievous gleam in her eye.  There had been many quiet, lonely nights in her room aboard the Hermes, where she’d moaned into her pillow – fearful of being heard – her fingers pressed deep inside her as she imagined Beck was with her, inside her.  “You’re going to have to warm me up, Beck, before we try something more.”

“I’m dying to know what you taste like,” he said, not taking his eyes off her.

She blushed and scooted down towards the head of the bunk.  Placing her hands on the bulkhead at the head of the bunk for balance, she lifted each leg one at a time so that Beck could slide down the bed a bit.  He rested his hands on her hips and began to pull her forward until she was very close to his face.  He could smell her arousal and see the glistening wetness on her lips.  Leaning his head forward slightly, he planted on soft kiss on the small triangle of hair. 

“Mmmhmm,” she groaned approvingly.  She shifted slightly, pushing her cunt against his waiting mouth.

His tongue pressed against her, pushing eagerly between her lips.  She was already very wet, and Beck’s attentive tongue was pushing her to a whole other level.  He gave long, slow licks against her clit, sending sparks up her spine.  Moving his hands up her sides, he pushed aside the jacket and cupped her breasts, squeezing them as he continued to work his tongue, switching from stroking licks, to swirls, and light, playful taps with the tip of his tongue.  She knew his face had to be soaked, and it turned her on even more to look down and see his face buried in her pussy.  Unconsciously she began to rock her hips slowly, grinding against his mouth.  He pinched one of her nipples, and she pressed harder against his mouth. 

“Stop, Chris,” she said and moved back a bit.

He looked up at her with some concern, and he licked her salty wetness from his lips.  “Am I hurting you?”

“Oh, God no,” she said with breathless anticipation.  “I want to cum with you inside me.  I want you to take me.  I need you to fuck me, Chris.”

Moving his hands back to her waist, he guided her to roll off of him and onto her back.  Then he was on top of her and kissing her.

She sucked hungrily on his tongue, tasting herself on him.  “Did you like how I tasted?”

“Delicious,” he replied.  “I wasn’t done.”  He lifted his head back and looked into her eyes, giving her a shy grin.

“I suspect you’ll have more opportunities,” she teased.

“Mmmmm,” she whimpered as he began to push his cock inside her.

He gritted his teeth, she was still tight, which felt amazing, but he was afraid of hurting her.

“No, don’t stop,” she begged, seeing the concern on his face.  “Don’t stop, Chris.”

That was all he needed to continue to push deeper into her.  He let out a deep breath as he was about half way in.  He pulled back out and pushed in again.  She wrapped her arms around him, digging her nails into his back.  Beck gave a last push and leaned down to kiss her now that he was fully inside her.  One of her hands went to the back of his head, threading her fingers through his hair as she just focused on the feeling of his cock inside her.

He buried his face against her neck, sucking gently on the soft skin there and began moving in out of her again.  Johanssen wrapped her legs around his, and slid a hand down to his buttock, gently digging her nails in.  This was so much more than her fantasy.  The sweat of their bodies mingled as they pressed together, the muscles of his chest rubbed against her nipples, and his cock filled her.

“I want on top,” she whispered after a few moments. 

Beck kissed her again and then pulled out of her, eliciting a look of disappointment from her.  He rolled onto his back and she climbed on top of him.  Taking his cock in her hand, she smiled at him as she guided him inside her.  Closing her eyes, she bit into her lip again, just trying to focus on the feeling of him spreading her as he slid deeper into her body.

She leaned forward, placing her hands on the bulkhead.

“Suck me, Chris,” she said, almost pleading.

He leaned up and wrapped his mouth around one of her breasts and began to suck on it, and then teased her nipple with his teeth.

She groaned as she rocked back forth, feeling him move deep inside her.

He loved the feel of her breast in his mouth, the softness of her skin, the small bumps around her nipple against his tongue.  Releasing her breast, he laid his head back on the pillow, watching her face. 

She sat up straight, then, putting her hands on the mattress just behind her, she leaned back, continuing to rock her hips.

“Touch me,” she said.

He reached down and pressed his thumb between her lips against her clit, rubbing it as she worked her cock inside him.

“Oh, babe, I’m going to cum,” she moaned.  “Don’t stop.”

The movement of her hips increased as Beck began to rub her faster.  He didn’t know how much longer he could hold out.  If not for their escapade in the shower, he certainly wouldn’t have made it this long.  But when Beth’s face suddenly contorted, her muscles tightened around his cock, and she let out a loud cry, it was too much for him.

“Oh, Chris. God,” she said through clenched teeth, still rocking her hips.  Her eyes were screwed shut as she road the wave that ran throughout her body.

Bucking his hips up against her, he came deep inside her.  “Beth…,” he said huskily.  He gripped her hips hard, pushing on her to keep her rocking going as his cum continued to shoot into her.

The movement of her hips began to slow, and she let low shallow breaths.  Her head was tingling.  She collapsed on top of him, her body damp with sweat, the smell of their sex heavy in the room.  Resting her head on his chest, she reached over and clasped his hand, listening to his heart pound – for her.  At that moment she never wanted to leave that spot with him in the bunk.

Beck breathed heavily, coming down from the high, and stroked her hair.  “Jo,” he whispered with a light chuckle.

“I love you, too, Mr. Muggles,” she murmured with a lazy grin. 

“Damn, I can’t wait to do that again,” he said.


	7. Chapter 7

**_Sol 20_ **

Lewis closed her eyes and rubbed her temples; her head was about to explode.  She hadn’t slept since they’d returned from Mars, which meant she’d now been up for over 40 hours.  While she was accustomed to long hours, the roller coaster of emotions over those last 40 hours was starting to take its toll.  Her call with NASA was now going on four hours.  Being that roundtrip communication took nearly half an hour, it was hardly a quick conversation, and they had a lot of questions and even more directions.  They had approved – in theory – their plan for launching the pod full of supplies down to the surface, but until they knew exactly where to try and land it, whether near the hab or halfway to Schiaparelli, it would have to wait.  Launching that pod was buried under a myriad of other more pressing concerns.

She certainly hadn’t expected, though she had secretly hoped for, a quick and brilliant solution.  This would not be clean; it would not be easy.  She expected difficult choices lay ahead for them and for Beck and Johanssen, but she was prepared to see if through – whatever it took to bring them home. 

“How’s it going?” Martinez asked as he came back to the bridge, having stepped out for a short break.

“About the same,” she said.  She motioned to the wall of text on her monitor.  “Lots and lots of questions.  They’ve got a sat tech working now to try to get eyes on the hab.  It doesn’t let us communicate with them, but maybe they can at least see them.  It would be good to see them at least.”

“It is a start,” Martinez said, strapping himself back into his seat.  “Do they have any ideas on how we will communicate with them?”

She chuckled and shook her head.  “Still working on it.  They did say they already have JPL working out how to do a resupply mission.”

“For us or them?” he asked. 

She shrugged.  “TBD.  Completely dependent on what the plan ends up being.” 

“Of course, it would take months to get here,” he said, the realization sinking in.  “We could be here for that long?”

Lewis shook her head dismissively.  “I highly doubt we end up waiting here for a resupply.  Most likely it’ll be for them, if we can’t find a way to get them up to us.  I don’t believe for a second that NASA will endorse a plan that sees us orbiting Mars for the next eight months.  Even if we did wait eight months for the resupply, I can’t imagine what would change in that time that would allow us to get them off the surface.”

“But we would right?”

“If getting them off that planet meant we had to wait eight months, then you’re damn right we would,” she assured him.  “They agree though, that getting them to the MAV and back aboard the Hermes would be the best option,” she said.

“But?”

“But they currently have no idea how to get them to the MAV,” she said. 

“We just gotta give them some time,” Martinez suggested, trying to convince himself just as much as her.  “They’ll figure it out.”

She nodded.  “Yeah.  Well, we probably need to go ahead and start rationing just in case.”

“Oh, that sounds fun,” he joked.  “Looks like that last bag of M&Ms just increased in value.”

“You can’t do a thing with those until the bet is settled,” she replied with a slight grin.

“Fucking potatoes!” Watney shouted, overly excited as he floated into the room.

Lewis pinched the bridge of her nose and clenched her eyes shut.  “Please, don’t shout, Watney.”

Watney’s excitement was quickly deflated as he could see the pain visible on her face.  “Oh, sorry, but potatoes!” he said, quieter and mustering a bit of his previous excitement.

“What about potatoes?” Martinez asked, puzzled.

He pointed to the tablet in his hand.  “I found the inventory for the hab.  There are potatoes for Thanksgiving.  I think I can get potatoes to grow on Mars,” he said. 

Lewis opened her eyes and looked at Watney.  She was surprised.  Watney was brilliant certainly, but she had seriously doubted his earlier claim that he could help them grow something.  “They could really grow food?”

He smiled and nodded.  “I mean… they’ll have to farm in our waste, but nothings perfect right?”    

Martinez frowned.  “But, if we get them to the MAV, then they don’t need to grow food.”

“Yeah, but we have to plan for worst case here,” Lewis reminded him.  “We may not be able to get them back on board.  If they do have to wait until Ares IV, then we need to help them prepare for that.”

“Here’s hoping that worst case is only that they have to wait until Ares IV,” Martinez said, unusually solemn.

“Keep it together over there, Martinez,” Lewis said.  “Can you write up a plan, Watney?”

“You got it, Commander.  I’ve already talked to Vogel a little on how they could get some water.”

“Good work.  Write it all up, and we’ll send it to NASA for review.”

Watney scoffed and rolled his eyes.  “Commander, if you send my plan to NASA they’re just going to mess with it.  I can handle this.”

She stared at him for a moment before she spoke.  “It’s not a time for your pride, Mark.  We need their help,” she said, exhaustion seeping into her voice.

“Sorry, Commander,” he replied. 

“It’s alright.  I know you’re eager to help, but we need them,” she said.

“Do they have a plan?” he asked.

“Not yet,” she admitted.  “We gotta have faith.  They are going to send us instructions on what and how we can strip out of the pod to make more room.”

“That will help certainly,” Watney acceded. 

Lewis let out a deep breath and rested her chin on her chest.

“Commander…” Watney began, concern in his voice.

She waved him off.  “Yeah, I know.  Martinez, can you take over for a bit?  I’m going to try and grab a couple of hours sleep.  Wake me if you need to.”

“You got it, Commander,” he said. 

***

Lewis stepped into her room and buried her face in her hands.  She was beyond relieved that her crew was alive, but it led to a whole new weight of emotion.  When they were dead – that was simply it.  But they were alive, and they needed to be rescued.  Which meant she had another opportunity to fail them.

“How the fuck are we going to get them off that planet?” she whispered into her hands.  She was alone, so she let the tears fall down her cheeks.  She just needed to let it out, just for a minute.  Taking a deep breath she wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and then collapsed on her bed with a huge sigh of relief and exhaustion.  Her body hurt and the bed was so welcoming.  She realized she hadn’t even bothered to shut the door much less turn off the light.  But she was ready to close her eyes, when there was the sound of footsteps in the hall and a tapping on her doorframe.

“Damn,” she muttered, assuming it was Martinez here to tell her that NASA wanted to speak with her again.  She just wanted to sleep.   

She turned her head and through the red hair falling across her face she saw Watney standing there looking all concerned.  “Watney?” she asked.  “Is everything ok?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were ok,” he said.  He could see she’d been crying, which definitely was not like her.  She was the strongest of all of them.

She reached up and patted his hand on her shoulder absently.  “I’m fine.  Really, just worried about them.”

“They’ll take care of each other,” Watney assured her.

She nodded.  “I just keep thinking back to all those moments.  We all saw it, but they didn’t.  Even I had a good laugh on the ‘will they’ or ‘won’t they.’  Because they fit together.”

“They do that,” Watney agreed. 

“Oh, I have an assignment for you.”

He snapped to attention.  “Anything, Commander.”

“There’s a satellite tech at NASA, Mindy Park.  She’s going to be working on getting us some satellite shots of the hab, help us keep an eye on them.  I have so many people to talk to and things to work on, I volunteered you to be the liason with her.  You’ll have regularly scheduled meetings with her to get any updates we might need.”

“I can absolutely handle that,” Watney said, grateful that she was willing to part with some of her workload.  Anything he could do to help her out.

“Great.  She’ll be sending you a message later today to get you started,” she said.  “Now, Watney, let me sleep.”

“You got it, Commander.  Get some rest.”

***

Beck awoke to the clacking of keyboard keys.  The room was completely dark except for the glow of Johanssen’s laptop, who was sitting up next to him in the bunk.  She stopped typing when he stirred.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said apologetically but continued typing.  “I was trying to be quiet.”

“No, it’s ok,” he said through a yawn.  “What are you doing?”

“Being brilliant I hope,” she quipped.

“Oh yeah?” he said and leaned up on his elbow to stare at the laptop screen.  It was filled with a bunch of code that made no sense to him.

She nodded.  Beck’s optimism was starting to rub off on her.  “So, first let’s assume that the Hermes got our message and understood it.”

“I like that assumption,” he admitted.

“So, we can then assume they are still in orbit, trying to figure out how to rescue us.  Now, we started with the weather antenna…”

“Which can apparently only transmit numbers.”

She shook her head.  “No, not exactly.  It’s an antenna, it could transmit anything.  However, it’s coded into the system to just transmit temperature data.  Now, there is a whole cluster of other antennas like that one – each one assigned the task of transmitting a specific set of data to the Hermes.”

“Like a backup for the comm dish?”

She made the so-so gesture with her hand.  “Sort’ve.  Not really a backup.  They’re nowhere near as powerful and could never transmit that much data, however, they can transmit their own small bits of data, so that if the comm dish were damaged then at least some data would still be sent to Hermes.”

He scrunched his mouth as he mulled it over, then regarded her curiously.  “Ok, so how does that help us?”

“I am hacking into the system and unattaching each antenna from the data it’s currently feeding from.  Then I’m going to link all of them together.”

“So, you’re using a bunch of small antennas to make a big one?”

“That’s my hope.  Then I’ll need to set up a program to let us send the data we want through the antennas.  We should be able to send text, audio, probably crappy video.”

“Why didn’t we do this first?” he asked.

She turned her head and frowned at him.  “Did you not hear all of the stuff I just said I had to do to make this work?  Editing the numbers one antenna was sending was a quick fix, this is much more involved.”

“Sorry, you’re the expert.  How long until we can send a message?”

“Soon,” she sighed with a shake of her head.  “Some of the coding in here is archaic to say the least.  It’s going to take me some time to work through.  The problem is, them replying to us.  We’re sending them data through a cobbled together system, it’s not something their system is designed to respond to.”

“Could we somehow link it to the comm system in the rover and use that to communicate with them?”

She looked at him again and leaned over and kissed his forehead.  “Now look who’s fucking brilliant,” she beamed. 

“I have my moments.”      

“So, I was thinking,” she said, the tone of her voice obvious she was about to propose something ridiculous.

“Yeah…?” Beck said cautiously.

“We’re probably going to be here a little while, and we should probably start keeping a log.  And I had an idea…”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading as always! I've got some surprises lined up ahead both happy and sad, hope you stick around for them!

**Chapter 8**

**_Sol 20_ **

“Commander!  Commander!” Vogel shouted, his voice full of excitement, rushing onto the bridge as quickly as he could.

 She turned from her monitor to look at him.  She couldn’t remember ever seeing such a big smile on his face.  He usually had that stereotypical German seriousness, but now, he was like a kid on Christmas morning.  It was almost infectious. 

 She held up her hand.  “Stop and take a breath, Vogel,” she said, seeing that he his face was turning red.

 He nodded, took a deep breath, and tried to refocus.  “We got a message.  It’s just text, but it’s an actual message,” he said.  He handed her his tablet.  “From Johanssen and Beck!” 

 “Yeah, we guessed that,” Martinez joked.  “Come on.  Read it.”

 “’Guys, guess what?  We’re not dead!” Lewis pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle a chuckle.  “Safe and sound in the hab.  I took a little tumble, but Beck got me patched up.  Please, see attached instructions on how to modify the antenna cluster receiver to accept modified data packets from us so that we can communicate from the rover.  Can’t wait to hear about your amazing rescue plan!  Hope you guys haven’t started going through our stuff yet.  Bex and Jo,” Lewis read out, her face a mixture of questioning, relief, and amusement.  “Then it’s a whole bunch of code and instructions.”  She stared absently at the tablet, a smile forming on her face, a small measure of relief flooding her.  “They’re ok.  They’re ok.”

 Martinez burst out laughing and clapped his hands together.  “Bex and Jo?  Yeah, they definitely did it. Looks like one of us won the bet, Commander.”

 Lewis merely shook her head.  “Let’s try to stay focused, Martinez.  We still have to rescue them.”  As of yet, they did not in fact have an ‘amazing rescue plan’, and one did not seem to be forthcoming from NASA in the immediate future.

 “We should tell Watney,” Vogel suggested.

 “Where is he?” Lewis asked.

 “Down in the pod,” Vogel replied, his voice switching from excitement to concern.  “He’s been working hours nonstop on those instructions NASA sent over about removing components to increase the storage space.  He looks exhausted.”

 “He knows it doesn’t have to be all done right away?  We don’t even know where we’re launching it yet,” Martinez replied.  “Not like Watney to be working his ass off.”

 “That’s enough, Martinez,” Lewis said quietly as she studied the code on the tablet. 

 Vogel shrugged.  “I told him, but he said he wanted to work on it.  He needs to get some sleep, Commander.”

 “I’ll go talk to him,” Lewis said and returned the tablet to Vogel.  “Do you think you can follow her instructions and make the changes?”

 Vogel nodded.  “Yeah, it doesn’t look too difficult.  I think I can get it done in under an hour.”

 “Well, no time to waste.  Martinez, get a copy of this message to NASA and let them know we’re proceeding with Johanssen’s modifications.”

 

 ***

As she made her way to the escape pad, Lewis wondered what she would say.  She couldn’t deny he was a hard worker, but she couldn’t have him working himself to death when she needed him most.  Approaching the entrance to the pod, she heard the sound of Watney moving things around.  She simply reminded herself that she was the commander, and she was responsible for his wellbeing and for protecting him from his stupidity.

“How’s this coming along, Watney?  Vogel says you’ve been at this for a while,” she said, stepping into the small pod. 

He didn’t turn to face her, just kept stacking dismantled parts of the pod in the corner.  “Pretty good.  I’ve made a lot of progress.  We can fit a lot of food and supplies in here.  I’m thinking medicine, tools, anything that isn’t nailed down that we can fit in here.”

“Make sure we put Johanssen’s teddy bear in here,” Lewis said.

He stopped what he was doing turned to her, a curious look on his face and an eyebrow raised dubiously.  “Say again?”

Lewis smiled.  “I saw it the first day when I went by everyone’s rooms as they were unpacking.  She said her little sister gave it to her.  I’d like to send it to her if we can.”

Watney chuckled.  “I think I can make room for it.”

“But,” she said, her tone turning official, “you do need to get some sleep.”

He let out a heavy sigh.  He was tired, but he hated to stop working.  “Yeah, I know.  I got an e-mail from Mindy Park.  She’s going to send me a video today to explain what we’re working on.  I do need to get some rest before that.  She warned me it would be long.”

 “Sounds good.  Keep me updated.”  She turned to leave and then smacked her forehead.  “Hell, I forgot.  We got a message from them,” she said.

Watney grew a genuine smile on his face.  “They’re ok?”

She nodded.  “We should be able to talk to them soon.”

“Oh, nice.  We can find out who won the bet.  Maybe it’s a good thing I’ve made so much progress on this pod then.  Maybe we’ll need to launch it soon.”

“Maybe, but we still don’t have a viable plan,” Lewis lamented.

“Those crazy kids down there are pretty bright.  I think together, we’ll all figure something out,” Watney said with a wink. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beck and Johanssen kill a little time in the rover.

Johanssen opened her eyes, stretched out her arms and legs, and gave a drawn out yawn.  By the amount of light in the room, she could tell that she’d slept in again.  To be fair, she’d stayed up most of the night hacking the hab.  Then the sound of singing hit her ears.  The next thing she noticed was the dull ache in her side.  She pulled herself out of the bunk and headed into the other room.  Beck, oblivious to her presence appeared to be busy taking an inventory of supplies, while singing along to a song playing on his laptop.  She was hesitant to interrupt him; she liked seeing so carefree.  He spent so much time worrying about the crew, and now about her.  It was good to see him let go a bit.  She knew there would be some hard days ahead, and she would need moments like this to look back on to help her stay strong.

 “’Yesterday and days before, Sun is cold and rain is hard.  I know, been that way for all my time.  ‘Til forever on it goes…,” he sang with no small amount of enthusiasm, as if he were actually up on stage performing for a crowd.

 “That’s not half bad,” she said to him.

 He suddenly stopped, turned to her, a blush rising in his cheeks.  “Oh hey, sorry did I wake you?”

 She shook her head.  “I was enjoying the show.  You should save some of that for our log though.”

 He laughed it away.  “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

 “Awww,” she said with a playful pout of her lips and tilting her head to the side.  “What are you doing?”

 “Trying to make myself at least half as useful as you,” he replied, “but failing miserably.”

 Her eyes narrowed.  How could he not consider himself useful?  “How’s that?”

 “You hacked the hab, got off the SOS, and then last night’s message.  You’re taking the lead on getting us rescued.”  He gestured to the stacks of supplies he’d pulled out onto the floor and tables.  “Meanwhile, I’m taking inventory.”

 She held up four fingers and closed each finger into a fist as she went through her list.  “You stayed behind on Mars for me.  You saved me from a Martian superstorm. You got me patched up.  You’ve taken care of me.” Stepping up to him, she wrapped her arms around his waist.  She gave him a smile and ducked her head bashfully.  “And gave me a night I certainly won’t forget about anytime soon.”

 “Well, I suppose I did some of those things,”  he said and leaned down and kissed her. 

 “Come on, time for our first log.  We need to suit up.”

 “Suit up?” he asked, confused.

 “Yep, we’re going to record our log in the rover.  We sent our message, but we’ll need to be in the rover to see if they got and to respond.  So, we can do our log while we wait.”

 “You’re really set on these logs I see,” he said.

 She nodded.  “It’ll be fun!”

 Beck sighed, having given in to her idea she’d offered up as a way to stay positive and motivated.  They got into their space suits, though Johanssen needed help getting outfitted.  The pain in her side had only grown with intensity.

 “Was damn stupid of me,” Beck said as he gave her a couple of pain pills and handed her a bottle of water.

 She popped the pills in her mouth and took a swig.  After she had swallowed, she asked, “What’s that?”

 He blushed.  “The… uh… the sex.  We should’ve waited longer.”

 “Screw that,” she laughed.  “We waited long enough.  I’ll be ok, Beck.  It’s just sore.” 

Thirty minutes later, they were settled in the rover.  He’d given Johanssen the driver’s seat while he knelt beside her.  Scrunched up next to her, he realized the significant challenge they would face if they had to use this rover to try and reach the Ares IV site, which was the only plan that seemed remotely feasible.  He tried not to let the realization show on his face, because it wasn’t a happy one.  A quick test of the comm system showed the connection to the Hermes was not yet operational.

 “They may have to get NASA’s help.  Some of the coding is complex,” she said.  “But I think Vogel can figure it out.  Those Germans are tenacious.”

“I’m not worried… yet,” Beck said.

“You ready?” she asked with a gleeful smile.

He blew out a deep breath; he couldn’t believe he agreed to this, but he couldn’t see himself saying no to much of anything Johanssen would ask him to do.  “Yeah, I suppose.”

“Come on,” she said and activated the camera.

They both smiled into the camera and Beck spoke first.  “Hey, Beck and Johanssen here.  Live from Mars.”

“More importantly, _alive_ from Mars!” Johanssen chimed in with two thumbs up.  “And it’s Bex and Jo.  Remember you agreed to cool radio nicknames.”

“I’m sure I didn’t,” Beck replied with a decided and emphatic shake of his head, “but if I did, it would be Dr. Bex.”

“Love it,” she exclaimed.  “We could do a call in show?  Dr. Bex Talks Sex?”

This was the woman he loved, and he wouldn’t trade her for anything, but he was sure she was at least partially crazy.  “You did have a good point!  We are alive, and we thought we should start recording logs… you know for posterity I guess?”

“Yeah, I think it’d be for posterity,” Johanssen agreed with a laugh.  “Perhaps, a little for our own amusement.  But if we pass on some of our wisdom for future astronauts on how to survive being stranded on another planet, then that’s a good thing.  I think.”

“And then Johanssen had the brilliant idea, ‘hey wouldn’t it be hilarious if we recorded our logs like a radio show,” Beck said, giving the camera a look of amused disbelief. 

“I was just thinking, if we die here, then maybe our goofy videos would cheer up whatever poor souls find us.  And I was kind of introverted on Earth.  Seems like time for a few changes:  new planet, new experiences,” she said matter-of-factly.  “So, guys, if you’ve just got to Mars and found our videos, hope you enjoy!” 

“I’m not sure exactly how sane she’ll stay being stranded here, so proceed through all future logs at your own peril,” Beck said jerking his thumb towards Johanssen.

Her eyes went wide, and she playfully slapped his shoulder.  “Awww, I think Beck is scared.”

“I would also just like to point out, that we have no intention of dying here,” Beck clarified. 

“We’d go down in history though,” she mused.  “First humans to die on another planet?”

“That’s a record I can live without,” he replied.  “Get it?  _Live_ without?”

“That was so stupid it’s adorable,” she said.  “Dr. Bex is in the house!”

“Well… in the rover,” he said.

“I should’ve brought my laptop.  We could’ve made some sound effects!”

“She is in a good mood.”

She nodded.  “I am!  Iam!  We have some good news.  I just sent a message to the Hermes earlier, an actual message and not just a bunch of numbers.  So, we’re celebrating with our first log.”

“Yep, let’s just hope they see our message,” he said, crossing his fingers.

“So, what were we saying?” she asked.  “Oh, our wisdom for survival.”

“Yeah,” Beck nodded his agreement.  “I would say my first tip would be – do not get stranded on another planet.”

“Ohhhh, I like that.  I’m totally stealing that to tell at parties.  You know, if I actually went to parties,” Johanssen said.  “Ok, I’ve got one.”

“I’m ready.”

She leaned in close to the camera and whispered, “If you are going to get stranded on another planet, then I recommend getting stranded with a cute doctor.”  She nodded her head towards Beck.  “Not this one though.  I kind of got plans for this one.”

“Plans?” Beck asked with a curious expression.  “Are you plotting to kill me, Johanssen?”

She laughed and rested her head on his shoulder.  “Oh NASA, just FYI, I am going to break so many rules with this guy.  Soooo many.  On that note, another great tip:  sex on another planet is amazing.  Don’t be scared to try it.”  She covered her mouth with her hand and whispered to the camera, “Don’t worry, NASA doesn’t have to know.”

Beck’s face quickly proceeded from light to a deep red, and his pulse rapidly jumped up.  “Except in our case apparently!  Umm, this is an official log.”

She waved it off.  “What can they do to us?  Leave us on Mars?”

“Oh, and if you’re wondering what’s up with us or particularly her.  I am tired as hell,” Beck laughed.  “She kept me up all night hacking the hab.”

“And I’m on pain meds,” Johanssen said and waved to the camera.  “Really good ones!  Oh, can I have more pain meds?”

“Um, no.”

Johanssen began to tap her fingers absently on the console.  “Hmm, what else?”

“To be fair, this is like our second day of survival, so we don’t have that many tips yet,” he said by way of apology.  “I’m sure we’ll have more in the days, weeks, months, hopefully not years to come.” 

“Did you say years?”

“I said hopefully not years,” he said with optimism. 

“The next Ares isn’t for a few years,” she reminded him.  “It is a possibility.”

“I’m sure hoping they think of something else,” Beck responded. 

“True.  True,” she said.  “Ok, I’m out of stuff.  Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”  She turned to Beck.  “We could make out a little?”

“On camera?”

She nodded.  “I told NASA I was going to break rules.  I feel kind’ve like I’m committed to that now.”

“Uh, yeah, what the hell,” Beck laughed.  “I mean you’ve already talked about our sex life.”

“The show is ‘Dr. Bex Talks Sex’,” she said.  “We can’t exactly not talk about it.  That title sets a certain expectation for our listeners.”

“Beth, we don’t have any listeners,” he deadpanned.  He wasn’t sure what to expect when she’d brought up the idea, but certainly this had was nothing like what he’d imagined.  Still, it was nice to relax for a minute and play fools for the camera.  He couldn’t deny, he would love to see the faces at NASA if they eventually watched these logs, which they most definitely would if they were recovered.

 “If you think we aren’t making this happen when we get back to Earth, you’re in for a surprise, babe,” she said with grim determination.

 “How many of those pills did I give you, again?”

 “Rover, this is Hermes, do you read?” Lewis’ voice, unusually excited, suddenly came over the speaker.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter - they finally talk to the Hermes! Next chapter coming soon and will be longer. 
> 
> Looks like story may end up being a little long. Hope you stick around for the adventure and surprises.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**_Sol 20_ **

Relief flooded Beck, and he squeezed Johanssen’s shoulder reassuringly.  Yes, they were still stuck on Mars, but this was real, undeniable progress and a drastic improvement in their situation.  Their friends were still here; they were not alone anymore, and it was all thanks to Johanssen.  “You did it, Beth.  You reached them.”    

 Johanssen’s response was less measured.  Her face lit up with unbridled excitement, and she valiantly fought the urge to squeal in delight.  “We have our first caller!”  she said and reached for the switch.

 “No, no,” Beck said grabbing her hand gently.  “Not a caller, Beth.  Why don’t let me take this one?”  

She huffed and slumped her shoulders in resignation. 

 “You’re no fun.” 

“You know, I can’t tell if you’re high… or toying with me,” he said, brow furrowed. Surely, she wasn’t having that strong of a reaction to the pain meds.  Maybe she had a particular susceptibility to that compound.

 “And that’s why you love me,” she replied simply.  Leaning over, she kissed his cheek.  “Sorry I said you weren’t fun.”  He released her wrist, and she flipped the switch.

 “Hermes, this is Rover 2, and we are very glad to hear your voice,” Beck said.

 “We made it!” Johanssen said, her enthusiasm suddenly restored.  “And we had sex!”

 “Oh, God,” Beck said, his cheeks flushed and tugging nervously at the collar of his spacesuit.  “That’s it, Johanssen, I’m cutting off your meds.” 

 “Knew it!  When?” Martinez interjected.  “That’s a very important detail.  I can’t convey how important the timing is.”

 “Just… let’s move on.  She’s just having a bit of fun,” Beck said dismissively, though he knew it rang hollow as soon as it came out.

 “So, are you saying it’s not true?” Martinez asked dubiously.

 “Yeah, Beck, are you ashamed of me?” she teased.

 “I… um… No, I didn’t mean that.”

 “Well, congrats on braving a new frontier for the human race; sex beyond Earth… you guys will be legends,” Martinez praised them.

 “Why thank you, Martinez, that’s so sweet,” she said with genuine appreciation, pressing her hand to heart.  “Beck, did you hear that?  Legends!” 

They could hear Watney and Vogel laughing in the background, and Beck just shook his head, trying to imagine the look on Lewis’ face.  They would never let him live this down, and he was curious how Johanssen would react to watching this log when she wasn’t feeling the effects of the medicine.  He expected a bit of embarrassment and lots of giggling and burying her face in her hands.

“Martinez!” Lewis snapped, attempting to sound annoyed, but there was a crack in the façade and her amusement couldn’t be hidden.  “Are you two ok?  Well, I mean it sure sounds like you’re ok.  Ok enough to break a few rules at least.”

“Ah see, even the Commander can’t resist,” Martinez laughed. 

“She’s a little off right now thanks to some pain pills, but we’re good,” Beck replied.

 “I’m not that off,” she scoffed.  “He’s just shy.  The prospect of certain death has brought out my more playful side, but Beck is still the same bashful Beck.”

 “Roger that, Johanssen,” Lewis said, her smile clearly coming through her voice.  “What’s your current status?”

 “We’re good.  You know, stranded on Mars but good.  She’s recovering from a minor wound, but it shouldn’t be a problem.  I’ve started taking an inventory of hab supplies so we can work up a plan for rationing in case we have to go that route.  But we’re hoping you guys have an idea how we can get to the Ares IV MAV,” Beck explained.  “I know the MAV is a longshot, but four years on Mars is an… unnerving prospect.”

 “I know.  I know.  We’re working on it,” Lewis said after a slight pause.  “NASA is trying to figure something out.  We’ve already got a couple of ideas about scavenging parts from Rover 1.  We’re hoping to eject the escape pod on Hermes to give you a resupply, but not until we know if you have to stay put or make the trek to Schiaparelli.  Either way, this isn’t going to be easy.”

 “Well, we have enough supplies to last for a while,” Beck said.  “As long the hab holds up, we’ll be able to hang on for a while.”

 “Watney says he can help you grow food,” she said encouragingly.  “He’ll send down a detailed explanation of what to do.  It’s going to be a lot of work, but I would go ahead and get started in case we have to go that route.”

 “Fucking potatoes!” Watney shouted in the background.  “I’m going to turn you two into Martian gardeners!”

 Beck and Johanssen laughed. 

 “It really is good to hear from you guys,” Lewis said, obvious relief in her voice. 

 “Same here,” Beck said.  “It’s all thanks to Johanssen though.  She’s got the hab systems eating out of the palm of her hand.”

 “I am a badass hacker,” she said brimming with self-confidence. 

 “You are that, Johanssen,” Lewis affirmed.  “It was Vogel that discovered your message.  That was brilliant thinking.”

 “Danke, Vogel,” Beck said.

 “Glad to help, guys,” he replied.  “It was nothing.”    

 “But don’t let Beck make it sound like this is all on me,” Johanssen said.  She turned her head to gaze at Beck and reached out to stroke his cheek.  “He saved my life.”

 “Now, let’s see if we can’t save both of you,” Lewis replied.  “NASA’s going to want a writeup of what happened on your end, and they’ll want an update on all the hab systems.”

 “Oh, paperwork,” Beck said with forced cheerfulness, “just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.”

 “Sorry, Beck,” Lewis replied sympathetically.  “You think that’s bad.  Think of the paperwork I have to go through telling NASA you’re dead and then retracting that.”

 “Can we circle back around to the sex part?” Martinez asked.

 “No,” Beck replied.  “Our next step is to complete the inventory.  Then I’ll come up with a plan for our rationing.  After that, I can get started on Mark’s plan.  The sooner we can start growing food the better.”

 “Sounds like you have things under control, Beck.  Good work,” Lewis said.  “We need to set a regular time to make contact each day for updates.”

 “Agreed,” Beck replied.  “How about 0800 and 1800 each day.”

 “Also, start uploading your logs,” Lewis said.  “Include anything of importance, system updates, supplies and equipment, etc.  That will help NASA figure out how to keep you alive, and they’re going to ask for it anyway, so might as well have it ready.”

 “Oh, logs,” Johanssen said, perking up.  “We’ve got you covered, Commander.”

 “No, they probably should be real logs, if NASA is actually going to watch them,” Beck said much to her disappointment.

 “Well, we should still do the other ones, too,” she replied.  “We need to give the people what they want, Beck.  And it’s cathartic, right?”

He looked at her when she asked him that.  It was a moment of sober clarity that he could see clearly in her eyes.  The humor, the fun were masks – but he could see through them to the truth: her apprehension.  She knew the fragility of their situation and knew their odds.  Despite everyone at NASA working on a way to bring them home, it was not a forgone conclusion.  He nodded to her reassuringly and grasped her hand. 

“I think the meds are starting to hit her a little hard.  Commander, I hate to cut this short, but I think I need to get Johanssen into bed,” Beck said. 

“Yeah, you do,” Martinez joked.

“God, Martinez,” Lewis groaned.  “They’re going to be on Mars for weeks, if not months at least.  You can space the jokes out just a bit.”

“I am a little tired,” Johanssen said and yawned. 

“Sounds good,” Lewis replied.  “We’ll forward some important NASA updates down to you, and you can get started on your report.  We’ll talk again in the morning.  We’ll of course be monitoring communications on our end around the clock if there is an emergency.”

“Thank you, Commander.  We’ll be in touch at 0800.  Hope you have a pleasant evening aboard the Hermes.”

“Good night, guys,” Watney shouted.  “I’ll be manning the comms tonight if you need anything, don’t hesitate to call.”

“Can we get room service?  Maybe a little wine?” Johanssen piped up.

“That’s not a bad idea.  You know, if NASA is looking to make money, we could market the hab as a romantic getaway for the ultra-rich,” Watney suggested.  “Seems like its already been christened as such.”

“Just ignore then and get some rest,” Lewis suggested.  “I suspect things are about to get very busy for you and us.”

“It was last night, Martinez,” Johanssen whispered into her headset.

“Damn it.  You called it, Commander.”

Beck couldn’t help but chuckle.  “And on that friendly note, Rover 2 is signing off.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark Watney, meet Mindy Park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy. I'm not sure about Mindy's "voice" in this chapter, so let me know if you have feedback. Maybe I pushed her a little too far out there? But read on and let me know what you think! Feedback is always welcome and encouraging.
> 
> If you’re enjoying it, kudos are very appreciated and help me stay motivated.

**_Sol 20_ **

 

“That felt good,” Lewis said after Beck had signed off.  She turned to her crew and gave them a warm smile.  There was still a lot to do, but it was a good moment for all of them.  “That felt damn good.  Good job, guys.”

“We wouldn’t make it anywhere without our fearless leader,” Martinez assured her.

“Well, not a moment’s rest.  Let’s get back to work.  Watney, I believe you have a chat coming up with Miss Park?” she said.

Watney nodded.  “Yep, I’ve got a video to watch, then we have a text chat scheduled.  You know how I love those long distance conversations.”

“I know it’s a pain,” Lewis admitted, “but it could help.”

“Sorry, really didn’t mean to complain, Commander.”

“Yeah, since when?” Martinez asked.

She made a dismissive face.  “Please, Watney, compared to what I’m used to from you, that’s hardly complaining.”

 “Oh, the commander strikes again,” Martinez chuckled.

 “Yeah, yeah,” Watney chuckled.

 Ten minutes later Watney was settled on a couch in the common room with his laptop to watch the video Mindy had sent him to help orient him on their new project.  Once it finished downloading he immediately hit play, prepared to be pretty bored with some detailed technical explanation about satellites, but he was quite surprised.  Mindy Park was… cute.  Really cute.  Not exactly what he expected from a sat tech, though he didn’t really know what to expect. 

 “Hi, Mar… sorry, I mean Dr. Watney,” she said awkwardly with a slight blush.  “I’m Mindy Park.”

 “Well hello there, Miss Park,” he muttered to himself, sitting up a bit straighter.

 “I just want to start off by saying that I’m really excited to be working with you.  I think we’re going to make a great team.  I know the communication is a bit awkward, but we’ll do our best.  So, you’re probably wondering what we’re working on.”  She held up a map of Mars and pointed to a speck on it.  “So, here is the hab, then way over here is the crater.  You and I will be working to help NASA plot the safest route from the hab to the crater, in case they figure out how to get them to the crater.  Then once they head to the crater, you’ll be out of communication with them, so I’ll keep track of them through the satellites and keep the Hermes up to date on their status.  It looks like for now they are requesting us to have daily briefings, just to make sure you guys stay in the loop.”

 “That sounds awesome,” he said dreamily then shook his head.  He needed to control himself; she was millions of miles away and he hadn’t even met her in person, but admittedly, this was the closest he’d come in a long time to talking to cute girl who wasn’t already spoken for or in love with someone else.  He continued to watch as she discussed the distance to the crater and how long it could reasonably take for them to reach it.  He didn’t even notice when Martinez walked up behind him.

 “Is that your satellite girl?” he asked with a whistle.

 Watney glanced up, a slight blush in his cheeks.  “Um yeah, Mindy Park.” 

 “She’s cute.  You should ask her out,” Martinez joked.

 “Hard to do from orbit,” Watney replied and paused the video.   

 “You got cameras right?  There’s always cybersex,” he chuckled.

 "With a twelve minute lag time?”

Martinez patted him on the shoulder.  “Yeah, you’re right, buddy.  You’d be done by the time she downloaded the first frame.”

“That’s hilarious,” Watney replied with a fake laugh.

“That’s why they hired me,” Martinez replied.  “Commander’s about to hit the sack, you need to head up to the bridge, if you’re monitoring comms.”

“No problem,” he said and closed his laptop.  “Maybe I can do my work without constant interruption.”

“You know you’d die of boredom if I wasn’t around,” he said with a large grin.

Watney chuckled and stood up from the couch.  “Well, I guess they have to keep someone around to fly the national treasure that is Mark Watney back to Earth.”

“Wow, you don’t even have to go to space to experience weightlessness do you?  With that much hot air, I’m not sure how you didn’t float away already.”

“It’s a skill,” Watney said with a slight bow at the waist.  “Have a good night, Martinez.”

He slapped him on the shoulder.  “Yeah, you too, buddy.”

Once he’d settled in on the bridge, and after finishing Mindy’s video, he turned on his webcam to record a return message.  He waved to the camera and smiled.  “Hey, Mindy, nice to meet you.  Please, call me Mark and not Dr. Watney.  Look forward to working with you as well.”  He turned the laptop around to show her the bridge and the view of the stars before turning the camera back on himself.  “Just relaxing here on the bridge watching your first video.  Quite a view.  Wish you could see it in person.  Fortunately for you, you just missed Martinez.  Anyway, sorry you got stuck working with the botanist of the group.  I will try to make it as not boring as possible.  Maybe on another video I’ll show you around the ship.  I would take you back to my room, but we just met and I don’t want to overstep any boundaries.  So, our job.  This sounds like a great idea.  Getting them to the crater is the best option, so plotting out a route for them sounds like a good use of time, unlike most of the things NASA does.  Just don’t tell them I said that.  Is NASA screening these calls?”  He gave a roguish grin.   

 

***

Mindy Park took a sip of coffee as she took a seat at her console in Mission Control.  It was late, just after 11:00 p.m., and she was one of only a few people currently working in the large room.  Despite the longer hours it was going to bring her, she was excited about her new project.  She loved her job as a sat tech, but this was on a whole other level.  When Vincent Kapoor had called her and told her she would be working with the rescue, she nearly passed out in terror, but the fear had quickly been replaced with a warm feeling of pride – Vincent had chosen her.  She was getting to work with and directly communicate with the Hermes crew; she was a part of the mission now to rescue Beck and Johanssen, and she was eager to not let anyone down.  She was also excited to learn that Lewis had paired her up to work with Mark Watney.  Though it was more than a little intimidating.  The Hermes crew were heroes and adventurers.  She was Mindy Park, a sat tech who liked to walk her dog and whose idea of adventure was an extra hot cup of tea while reading a trashy book about alien invaders while relaxing on her couch with the aforementioned dog curled up on her feet.  Still, her excitement overcame her anxiousness.

Logging into her computer, she let out a yawn.  She still wasn’t used to working so late, but she would adapt.  Once she was logged in, she smiled as she saw a video message from Watney popped up in her inbox.  They were scheduled to have a long distance chat, but she hadn’t been expecting a reply to her message; surely he’d be too busy to bother. 

She watched the video, smiling slightly and unconsciously biting her lower lip when he told her to call him Mark.  She of course had seen plenty of interviews of him, but this was something else.  And… was he flirting with her?  She had a terrible time of picking up on things like that.  Once she finished his video, she glanced at the clock.  It was only a few minutes until their scheduled text chat.  This would be the first time she’d ever chatted with someone and had to wait twenty four minutes to get a response, which would prove to be challenging but certainly did not nothing to dampen her anticipation, which had only increased by seeing that Watney seemed just as eager to work with her; though she couldn’t believe that was be possible.  He was an astronaut – an American hero, and she was a sat tech whose name few people even at NASA knew.  But she could imagine that after being off Earth for a year, chatting with anyone from home could be a refreshing change of pace.  Who knows, maybe they’d become friends, as much time as she put into work, she could certainly stand to have a few more of those.

Pushing her musings aside, she logged into the chat program and decided to take the bold move of sending the first message.

_Hi, Dr. Watney, errr… Mark.  This is Mindy (obviously, who else on Earth would be messaging you at 11:30 at night, not that lots of people wouldn’t want to message you of course!).  I’m sure you get messages all the time, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.  Oh, look there I go rambling.  I tend to do that sometimes, especially when I’m nervous, and I never expected to be involved in an interplanetary astronaut rescue!  Anyway, sorry to get off topic already, and then I went off topic about going off topic!    Just finished watching your video, and I’m looking forward to our project.  Go team Watney/Park!!!  Oh, I can’t believe I just typed that, please don’t think less off me.  And why am I using so many exclamation marks?  I know, I could’ve just backspaced it, but if we’re going to work together over such a long distance, then we need to cut down on our already sizable communication issues.  So, one of the easiest things we can do is just be ourselves and be honest.  And I’m something of an awkward dork, so the sooner you get used to that the better, so no use trying to hide it.  You might not believe that I’m super-quiet and shy in person (if you were here right now, I'd be close to speechless, but it's not you, I get nervous just asking my dog to go for a walk - always worried she might say no) but stick me in a text chat and... yikes (as you can see).  Nice to meet you!_

She hit enter before she could stop herself and let out a sigh.  Well, there was no going back now, and as she reread what she sent, she was fairly certain it was an unmitigated disaster of awkwardness.  Watney was going to think she was insane.  She leaned back in her chair, stuck a pencil between her teeth, and pondered what she should write next.  Could she still salvage his impression of her?  When a message popped up on her screen barely five minutes after she’d sent hers, she leaned forward, dread on her face, eyes narrowing as she focused on the text.  How had he responded so quickly she wondered at first, then realized that he had the same idea, that rather than wait for a message from her had gone ahead and sent one early.

 _Good evening, Miss Park.  Mark here from orbit around Mars.  Not bragging… just saying.  Hope you’re having a pleasant evening back on Earth.  If you could sometime this week eat an entire can of bbq Pringle’s on my behalf, I would appreciate it.  A photo of you holding the can would even be helpful.  I’ve been craving those all month, and of course, no one at NASA had the foresight to pack any.  Instead I’m sitting here enjoying a pack of something that has been mislabeled as vanilla pudding, when it should’ve been more accurately labeled as freeze-dried glue._   She laughed out loud, and then glanced sheepishly around the room to see if anyone had noticed.

_Anyway, enough complaining or NASA will probably start withholding my paychecks.  Wait.  I am getting paid for this right?  Can you check on that for me?  And see if I get a bonus for helping plan a Mars rescue mission, as that was definitely not in the job description for this mission.  Tell them they can take it out of Beck and Johanssen’s pay since this is all their fault.  Just kidding!  I’m ready to get to work and rescue those two crazy kids.  This is really important to me, Mindy.  Can I call you Mindy?  Beck is my best friend, and Johanssen is great, too, of course.  I’m thinking we just start with the hab location and go through the map grid by grid to trace the safest but quickest route.  Eager to hear your thoughts!_

She placed her fingers on the keyboard, an amused smile on her face, as she tried to decide how to respond.

_Mark, that sounds like a good plan that you’ve put some thought into.  Lucky us though, NASA has other people on this problem – trust me, I can barely follow my GPS, so I shouldn’t be designing a Martian highway.  A group of geologists along with a specialist on the rover (good to know what its capabilities are) on working on designing the route.  Our job is a little more simple.  As they develop the route, you and are I are to examine the realtime satellite pictures grid by grid and compare them to the database of maps they used to plan the route.  We’ll update them to any major changes we see in case the route needs to be adjusted.  You’ll help us use the equipment aboard the Hermes to take additional photos, monitor the weather along the route, and whatever else we can come up with.  Sorry, if that’s not as exciting as what you were hoping for!  I should’ve been more clear in my first video about what the exact nature of our project is.  If it makes you feel better, I am getting paid overtime for staying late to chat with you.  I’d be happy to cut you in on some of that if you bring me a Mars rock – I need a new doorstop.  And please, call me Mindy._

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
